On Sunday, September 21, 2025, while attending an engagement at the Ernest Etim Bassey Press Centre of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Cross River State Council, I, alongside Efio-Ita Nyok, met with Rt. Hon. Hilary Bisong, a three-term member representing Boki II State Constituency and Chief Whip of the Cross River State House of Assembly.
During our brief interaction, Hon. Bisong shed light on the earnings of Assembly members. According to him, the basic salary of an ordinary member stands at about ₦680,000 monthly, while ranking members earn about ₦750,000. In addition, legislators receive ₦1.5 million monthly as overhead and another ₦200,000 for staff salaries covering PAs, SAs, and media aides. Altogether, this totals roughly ₦2.4 million as their monthly take-home.
When pressed further, he denied the existence of any other subheads but later acknowledged the provisions of the amended Cross River State Local Government Law (2025), which increased the Assembly’s share of LG allocations from 0.5% to 1%. However, he admitted that the Assembly has not received this allocation since last year.
To put this into perspective, Cross River’s 18 LGAs receive between ₦300 million and ₦600 million monthly from FAAC. At the minimum ₦300 million, that amounts to ₦5.4 billion. By law, 1% (about ₦5 billion monthly) should go to the State Assembly. Divided among 25 members, this equals roughly ₦216 million per legislator monthly.
Even if the Assembly remits these funds back to the state government and only 10% (₦500 million) is returned to it, each member would still receive about ₦20 million monthly, in addition to salaries and allowances.
From a journalist’s perspective, I can say there are other subheads through which lawmakers earn money. This makes it clear that the massive empowerment programme recently carried out by Speaker of the 10th Assembly, Rt. Hon. Elvert Ayambem, could not have been sponsored by mere savings of ₦2.4 million monthly. Likewise, the attempted impeachment of the Speaker cannot simply be linked to presiding over a House earning only ₦2.4 million per member.
Adding to this, credible insiders have confirmed that Governor Bassey Edet Otu has been generous to lawmakers. A striking example was the ₦25 million package reportedly given to each member last December for constituency celebrations.
Let it be noted that this publication is not an attempt to indict anyone, but to inform Cross Riverians with facts already in the public domain. What remains unclear, however, is whether all these legally approved funds are fully released to lawmakers — just as LGAs are entitled to over ₦500 million monthly but often receive only about ₦50 million.
What is certain is that the law provides these allocations. Whether or not they are faithfully implemented is another story entirely.
But about this Assembly? Let’s just say — mkpo do ke mbio!
#IamOracle
Ukorebi Esien writes for The Daily News (TDN). CC: Conveseer
